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JOE BEDNARSKI
BEDNARSKI, JOE
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in 86 when you learned how to go through to become a gunner wed fly over the Gulf and shoot at a
floating target. And then after you got through with that, this is a .50 caliber that we used in B-17s and
B-24s when we would flew over Europe. Now can you imagine that size bullet going into you or going
through you? That thing leaves a big hole. They shoot about 500 rounds per minute. But what we did
was, take the back plate off the .50 caliber machine gun and take off these plastic disks that were in there,
which affected the recoil of the gun. We would take out the plastic ones and wed put in nickels. They
were a lot harder and wed put in a string of nickels in there and the would make the recoil lots faster.
That would increase the rate of fire by 100 bullets. So instead of shooting 500 bullets a minute we had
increased it to 600. Boy, you could throw out a lot of slugs. If you didnt watch yourself and you held
that trigger too long you could actually make that gun barrel red hot. And eventually it would just bend
from that heat because it was air-cooled.
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pretty bad, about 85% of my heart was blocked. So my heart was only working about 15%. Thats one
of the things after you get into that golden age which you got to contend with.
Is there any certain experience during the war that you remember the most?
War in itself is hell. I mean what you see you dont want to go through it. I mean it makes you think twice.
Can you imagine that when you shoot a gun that can shoot 600 bullets what it does to you? It can cut
you in half and rip you up, which isnt a very good sight after it goes through. Once youre up in the air
after awhile lets say at 10,000 feet you have to have oxygen. Above that your capabilities of doing things
right diminishes. The higher you go up the less oxygen you have and first thing you know you think
youre doing things right, but you dont. Its like going slowly unconscious and you dont know it. You
think youre doing the right thing and actually youre not. Eventually you get too high without oxygen
you just pass away.
Did you have a certain meal that was your favorite meal?
Favorite meal. For breakfast youd have your eggs whatever way you wanted it, the cooks would add
sunny side up on both sides or one side with toast and butter. It was, even though it was a war, rations
and all that in the Air Force you had a good meal whenever you had one. That was one thing at the Air
Corps, you were fed good because I mean you had to, otherwise youd go up in the air with gas and you
didnt want that to happen.
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working and putting in overtime because there was a production boom. They wanted to supply the Army
with different things, so the guys would be working overtime and making money and they didnt have
any respect for the guys that were fighting. And thats what kind of bugged me. I always said that some
people here back home just didnt care what the war did to them. People come in that were shot up, were
cripples for life and handicapped.
If you could leave one message to everyone about the war what would you say?
I would say if I have anything to say, think twice before you say lets fight the war because its no good.
Can you imagine one of these going through you and leave a hole the size of a quarter when it goes in
and when it goes out you got about that big of a hole? I mean the only time youd survive is if its going
through one of your limbs like an arm or leg then youve got a chance, but if it goes through any part of
the trunk of the body you just dont have a chance. Fighting using a machine gun is what you want to do,
especially on the ground force. You want to wound the solider, because it takes 2-3 GIs to take care of
a wounded one. If you kill him you dont have to do anything to bring him in, you list him as dead and
look to do it later on, pick him up later on. Id say, I saw a phrase where it said never underestimate an
American because a GI always has a tendency to overcome an obstacle. So I dont know if Ive done
what you boys have asked.
BEDNARSKI, JOE